Karachi Municipal Corporation has entered into an agreement with a Turkish firm on bringing about an improvement in the solid waste management system of the city, a statement said on Wednesday.

It recalled that a memorandum of understanding in this regard was signed by the two sides recently in Islamabad.

Sindh government has planned to introduce Bus Rapid Transit System in the province initially in Karachi in the first phase costing Rs 450 million.

This system successfully functions in 28 countries of world including Iran, Japan, Turkey, China, Malaysia and India.

After the success of Bus Rapid Transit System in Karachi, it would be extended to Hyderabad, Sukkur and other cities of province, minister for transport Akhtar Jadoon said according to an official handout on Sunday.

Striking against rising global protectionism, India has dragged both Turkey and Egypt to the World Trade Organisation for imposing special import duties on Indian cotton yarn, lowering competitiveness in these markets. New Delhi has been criticising Turkey for violating WTO norms at several forums of the WTO for the past few months, but it has requested formal consultations on the issue for the first time, which is the first step towards filing a dispute.

The FAO session on Tea has agreed on what discussion on climate change can be taken up for discussions here. The 20th session of the FAO has drawn up scope and the terms of reference of the climate change working group at its meeting on Sunday.

“This will be put forward to the Inter-Governmental Group on Tuesday,” said Kaison Chang, secretary, FAO-IGG, when asked about the progress of negotiations on climate change. Discussions on climate change will now start formally with all the producing and exporting countries, and consumers. Climate change formally made its way into the summit agenda at Mombasa.

Tehran is considering a twofold increase in power exports to neighbouring Turkey after a new electricity transfer line between the two countries becomes operational.

Iran is currently exporting about 230 kilovolt per day(kV/d) of electricity to Turkey and the new transfer line will increase that capacity to 400 kV/d.

Prospects for the European Union's favored Nabucco natural-gas pipeline project appear to be dwindling, weeks before a consortium of Caspian Sea producers is due to choose one of four planned pipelines to carry its gas to Europe,

This week, Azerbaijan said it plans to build its own pipeline through Turkey that would run parallel to Nabucco's planned route. At the same time, the U.S. softened its years-long support for Nabucco, saying it now backs any of the four alternatives so long as they will deliver gas to the most "vulnerable" EU states.

At least twelve people were killed by a second earthquake in eastern Turkey, and residents protested Thursday that authorities should have closed down two hotels that were damaged by the first quake. The earthquake hit the same region slammed by a quake on October 23 that left 600 people dead in Van province.
Van’s most prominent hotel, the Bayram Hotel, survived the first quake, but it toppled in the new, magnitude-5.7 quake. The Aslan Hotel, a budget operation in Van, also collapsed.

A Japanese aid worker was among eight people killed by a second earthquake in eastern Turkey, and angry residents protested on Thursday that authorities should have closed down two collapsed hotels damaged by the first tremor.

Riot police used pepper spray to halt the protests.